In years past I posted pics and info on the Vampire Hunter Colt and the tribute guns
The Vampire Hunter Colt, part of the Robert E. Peterson Gallery at the National Firearms Museum:
This year I wanted to make another coffin gun case
Because I am not much of a wood worker, I purchased a mini coffin on eBay from Woodmaster Cabinetry in Chattanooga, TN. It is made of pine, with dimensions of: 16" long x 8" wide x 4" tall
Mapping out how the gun will fit in the coffin, I will be using my S&W model 65, why?......
I don't know, it has that "turn of the century" look to it. Other than the bull barrel, it could almost pass for nickel plated .38 hand ejector.
I bought a 2'x4' sheet of .115" MDF board and traced out the coffin
After a lot of sanding and fitting the board now fits inside the coffin.
I measured the thickness of the model 65 and it is almost exactly 1.5" thick, which is perfect, I have plenty of 3/4" pine boards to use in shimming the MDF board up, so after adding some cushion the gun will sink roughly 1/2 the way through the MDF board.
The next step was to trace the outline of the model 65 and start fitting the gun to the mdf. The outside lines are traced from the gun with a sharpie, because the sharpie is wide, I decided to draw another set 1/4" or so to the inside of them, to make sure we don't go over siize
Using a drill, I drilled a bunch of holes along the inner line and then cut between them with my jigsaw
I then used a coarse bastard file to trim the mdf, it turns out the outer tracing was perfect, it left plenty of room for the material, but still fit well
Next I added some blocks to support the mdf, this way the gun will fit about 1/2 way down into the recess.
I then whiskered the wood in preparation for some black RIT dye.
I mixed up the dye with two cups of hot water and covered the coffin, one coat was all that was needed
Despite de-whiskering the wood, we still got some raised grain after the water based dye dried. So I gave it a light sanding with 400 grit paper and applied the 1st coat of Minwax water based Polyurethane.
The fabric for the inside came from a girls dress I bought at the thrift store for $3, the crushed velvet is blood red, but has an iridescent look to it
I cut up some closed cell foam to cushion the gun against the wood
Then I took the mdf board and measured out the fabric and glued onside to the mdf using contact cement
I then folded the fabric over and glued the other side.
Next I began trimming the middle of the void and folding over using thumb tacks to hold the material while the glue dried
Then cut out some of the fabric to sit on the bottom of the coffin
Then trimmed it
I then installed the cut-out insert
and trimmed and glued the edges
Finished!
Some others I found, these are just coffin cases, not "monster hunting kits".
I found these on woodworkingtalk.com, they have a tutorial on how to make them
